The people who live after 2050 will fortunate find a smoking-free New Zealand as the Citigroup report said. Citigroup also affirms that Australia will be totally free from smoking by next 20 years.

Smoking pervasiveness in New Zealand is 20% while it is 17% in Australia. Though the country will be free from smoking by next 45 years, yet the threat with smoking-related diseases will prevail for the years ahead.

The Christchurch Public Health Researcher, Dr. Murray Laugesen said that we need another 20-40 years time to be free from smoking-related diseases after smoking completely ends.

According to the predictions by tobacco control groups, it needs another 70 years for New Zealand to completely get rid of smoking. However, the Health Ministry estimated that smoking prevalence will be somewhere 9% by
2050, and it will further decrease by another 3% with a tax rise.

But after the announcement, the Parliament's Maori Affairs Committee recommended tough new policies to aim at making the country smoking-free by 2025. Prudence Stone, the Director of the Smoke-free Coalition said, "We have the vision that it can be done by 2020."

But the Citigroup has stated that the trend in the developed countries shows a steady decline in the smoking level and if it continues many major tobacco markets will be replaced by Zero-smoking zones.